Life and politics from the Sunshine State's best city

Florida Chamber - page 2

If Tuesday’s elections proved one thing, it was that Fair Districts didn’t make much difference in the Florida Legislature. That was the assessment from Marian Johnson, senior vice president for political strategy for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, who spent the Chamber’s election night party in Tallahassee crunching data. The state Senate appeared to be shifting from a 26-14 GOP majority to 25-15. The House seemed headed for a similarly negligible shift. The Fair Districts initiative had been intended to…

The Florida Chamber of Commerce lent their substantial clout to four statehouse Republicans on Monday. Groveland Rep. Larry Metz, Auburndale Rep. Neil Combee, Maitland Rep. Bob Cortes, and Saint Cloud Rep. Mike De La Rosa were among those who got the nod from the pro-business interest group. The lawmakers all received “A” grades from the Chamber’s annual legislative report card, which assigns members marks based on their votes on the group’s priorities, which according to their criteria aim to make “Florida more competitive through private-sector job…

Florida businesses pay too much in a rent tax, and a new coalition is looking to change that starting with the 2016 Legislative Session. In a new video released Thursday, the Business Rent Tax Coalition, a group of small businesses and other business interests, calls for lawmakers to eliminate Florida’s 6 percent business rent tax over the next six years, beginning with a 1 percent cut starting next year. “Florida is moving in the right direction,” the video says, “taxes…

Florida’s Chamber of Commerce is looking forward to the upcoming Legislative Session with a new blueprint for the effort to advance jobs, economic growth and opportunity in the Sunshine State. Now entering its 100th year, the Chamber unveiled its 2016 Legislative Agenda during a Tuesday news conference at the Florida Capitol. The Florida Legislature is scheduled to convene its 2016 Regular Session Jan. 12. Presenting the agenda was Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson, Chamber Chairwoman Tracy Duda Chapman, senior…

The legal maneuver known as “assignment of benefits” rivals or even outstrips mother nature herself as a threat to coastal Florida policyholders, according to a top staffer with a state-owned insurer and an insurance industry lawyer. At the Florida Chamber of Commerce‘s annual Insurance Summit at a Disney resort near Orlando, Angel Conlin, General Counsel for American Strategic Insurance Company, joined a chorus of antipathy for the practice and for trial lawyers who lucratively employ it Tuesday afternoon. Conlin said so-called…

Whether insurance policy prices should be set through government regulation or left to market forces was the hot topic Tuesday for a panel of top insurance minds. “When you look at the program of protecting coastal properties, it’s been an absolute failure,” said Steven Pociask, who runs the American Consumer Institute for Citizen Research. “It subsidizes second and third homes and people [who] live in Monaco. I don’t see the point.” Pociask’s remarks were at the Florida Chamber of Commerce Insurance…

Florida’s Chamber of Commerce strongly criticized the Solar Choice Amendment on the day the proposal passed a major legal hurdle. Mark Wilson, Florida Chamber president and CEO, denounced the amendment after its language was approved by the Florida Supreme Court Thursday afternoon. He said, as it stands, the proposal is “driven by special interests that seek to raise electricity prices” on consumers. The amendment, sponsored by Floridians for Solar Choice and backed by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, seeks to…